Swastika Tamang, 31, of Majhuwa (Dobhan) in Naubise VDC-8, who was suffering from high fever, died inside the ambulance after the vehicle she was in got stuck in the traffic jam for hours. Tamang was the mother of a 24-day old baby. [break]
"We couldn´t save Tamang although the nearest hospital is just 20-minutes drive, as the jam continued for three hours," said the ambulance driver, Krishna Bhakta Upreti. "Tamang would have been alive now had it not been for the traffic jam," added Upreti.
According to Upreti, the ongoing repair work in the road section and the broken vehicles left behind on the roadside are the main reasons for the traffic jam.
The repair work has been ongoing for the past one and a half months and it takes around four hours to cover the 10-km section, according to motorists.
"It is impossible to cross the road section on desired time because of the two way traffic jam. There is no other alternative other than to wait for hours for the accumulated vehicular traffic to clear gradually," said Upreti. The ambulance (Ba 3 Cha 4373), which was carrying Tamang had reached Nagdunga at around 8 in the morning before it got stuck in the jam.
Tamang was suffering from puerperal sepsis, a fever that overwhelms a newborn´s mother after 42 days of pregnancy period, informed assistant health officer at Naubise Health Post Hemanta Subedi. Tamang was admitted to the health post three days ago.
"After her condition started to become serious, we immediately referred her to Kathmandu for further medical treatment. She could have lived had she reached a Kathmandu hospital on time," said Subedi.
Before coming to the health post, Tamang was taking medicines and seeing shamans at her home. She was the mother of four children.
According to ambulance drivers here, this is the third case of a local dying while being taken to Kathmandu. "A woman from Butwal, who had prolonged labor died inside the ambulance due to a prolonged traffic jam," said another ambulance driver. "Another woman from Chitwan died in a similar case last week."
Meanwhile, police informed that they have no record of such deaths taking place in the last few weeks.
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